There are no survivors in the blast at a Tennessee explosives factory, sheriff says

The blast that leveled an explosives works and was felt for miles astir successful agrarian Tennessee near nary survivors, authorities said Saturday.

Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said during a quality league that officials were moving connected the presumption that each of the radical astatine the tract were dead. The full fig of radical who died was unclear, arsenic was the origin of the blast.

Davis had said earlier determination were 18 radical missing.

"We've recovered nary survivors," Davis said. The detonation Friday greeting astatine Accurate Energetic Systems, which supplies and researches explosives for the military, scattered debris implicit astatine slightest a half-mile (800-meter) country and was felt by residents much than 15 miles (24 kilometers) away, Davis said.

Aerial footage showed the company's hilltop determination smoldering and smoky Friday, with conscionable a wide of twisted metal, burned-out shells of cars and an array of debris near behind.Davis, who described it arsenic 1 of the worst scenes he's ever seen, said aggregate radical were killed.

When asked to picture the gathering wherever the blast occurred, Davis said, "There's thing to describe. It's gone."

Aerial video connected WTVF tv showed flames and fume emanating from debris wherever the gathering erstwhile stood. Witnesses reported the blast being heard and felt for miles around, section media said.

Davis initially said 19 radical were missing but WSMV tv aboriginal reported 1 of those believed missing was recovered harmless astatine home, citing officials.

The institution offered nary denotation of the cause, saying successful a statement, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families, coworkers, and assemblage members affected by this incident," portion thanking the archetypal responders connected the scene.

Accurate Energetic Systems develops, manufactures and stores explosives for "military, aerospace, and commercialized demolition markets," according to the company's website. The 1,300-acre office successful Bucksnort, Tennessee, includes 8 accumulation buildings and a prime lab.

The institution offered comparatively high-paying jobs for a agrarian country successful Tennessee, wherever employers indispensable wage the minimum of $7.25 an hour. On its Facebook page, AES said it was hiring accumulation workers astatine a starting complaint of $19 an hour.

Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates told CNN the works did not person a past of information problems, though determination was a tiny ammunition detonation determination successful 2014. That incidental killed 1 idiosyncratic and injured three, according to The Tennessean newspaper.